Daily Archives: September 8, 2010

University of Georgia football student-athlete A.J. Green must miss four
games as a condition of becoming eligible to play again, according to a
decision today by the NCAA student-athlete reinstatement staff.

The university declared the student-athlete ineligible for violations of
NCAA agent benefits rules. According to the facts of the case submitted by
Georgia, the student-athlete sold his Independence Bowl game jersey to an
individual who meets the NCAA definition of an agent. Green has repaid the
$1,000 value of benefits to charity.

The agent part of this is interesting. Did A.J. know who he was dealing with? (And that’s a person who ought to think carefully about, say, changing planes in Atlanta, once his/her name gets out. Which it will, eventually.)

The school is appealing, but the upshot is that he’s definitely out this week. Worst case scenario is that they won’t have Green back until the Colorado game.

I’ll wait to hear what his motivation was, but seeing as he’s at the school that was the source for the NCAA rule in the first place, this wasn’t a smart move, at least on its face. (And, yes, there’s something crappy about a player prohibited from capitalizing on his name, while the school plows ahead and does so. But that’s a subject for another post.)

… Only three times since league expansion in 1992 has a team lost its first conference game to a divisional opponent and gone on to play in the SEC championship game.

The most recent team to do it was Tennessee in 2007 after the Vols opened their conference schedule with a loss to Florida. Arkansas also did it in 2002 after losing to Alabama to begin the SEC slate, and Tennessee pulled it off in 1997 after losing to Florida in the league opener. The Vols, quarterbacked by Peyton Manning that season, remain the only team in the league to have won the SEC championship after losing their league opener to a divisional foe.

That being said, it looks like South Carolina has a tougher road ahead with a loss than does Georgia, because of which teams from the West each plays.

… Something to keep in mind is that Florida has to go to Alabama this season with South Carolina getting the Crimson Tide at home. Georgia doesn’t play Alabama this season.

Of the three, South Carolina is the only team that has to face Alabama, Arkansas and Auburn this season – making Saturday’s game all the more critical for the Gamecocks.

If you figure that Georgia and South Carolina play out Arkansas and Auburn similarly, that means with a loss Saturday, the Gamecocks would likely have to beat both Alabama and Florida to have a shot at a trip to Atlanta. If they pull that off, they’ll certainly deserve to go.

A Georgia loss means that the game in Jax becomes a must win. But it probably shapes up that way for Georgia win or lose Saturday.

A.J. Green remains as puzzled as the rest of us about last year’s celebration penalty: “I still don’t understand that call. I was trying to get back to the sidelines, but the guys wouldn’t let me get back there. They were lifting me up and then the ref threw the flag. To me, that’s part of the game. It’s an emotional game. As long as I’m not doing anything to taunt the other team, then it shouldn’t be a penalty. I hope they change that rule.”

Spurrier utters a few choice words over Willie Martinez’ casket: “It’s a typical Georgia team: very good and seem to be playing with a lot more fire on defense than they have last year or two.”

… A few years covering SEC football and various NCAA matters has taught me this: Do not ever, ever, ever assume or speculate anything when it comes to the NCAA. While it’s likely Georgia will receive an NCAA RULING soon on Green, I think it’s premature to say for sure that he will be CLEARED to play against South Carolina. I know Dawgs fans may not want to hear that, but past precedent in NCAA cases teaches that it is very rare for a player to miss a first game and suddenly have the suspension announced as time already served. Usually the punishment is issued well before a player actually returns — if he has already missed a game.

Now, I just got off the boat here in Athens. So maybe past cases aren’t a true indication. Maybe this really is different, but I’m telling you, I’ll have to see it to believe it.

In terms of punishment, what Green actually did (and the general thinking is this will ultimately prove to be tied to the rumors of a jersey sale) isn’t as important as the perceived value of the violation. If reports are true that the nature of Green’s transgression was in the range of $1,000 (which I’m not completely sure — through sources — that they are), that in itself would probably mean more than a one-game suspension.

The NCAA said that Alabama defensive end Marcell Dareus was actually down to miss four games, but mitigating circumstances (his mother died around the time of the trips to Miami) reduced it to two. Dareus had to make restitution for roughly $1,800.